William Clayton
William Clayton is a gay character from Arrow. Biography William is the illegitamite son of Oliver Queen. His mother told Oliver she had miscarried and moved to Central City, where she had William, and kept him a secret for several years. Oliver came to Central City where he saw William and Samantha together. He found her later and confronted her. She denied that William was his son, but a DNA test proved her wrong. In the original timeline, Samantha says that he can see William but no one can know about him. Oliver needs time to think things over. When the timeline gets changed by Barry, Samantha gives the same ultimatum which Oliver agrees to. He goes to see William and says that he's a friend of his mom's. Oliver makes several trips to visit William, when he is found by Damien Darhk and kidnapped. Oliver, under the disguise of Green Arrow, was able to rescue him, but decided to never see him again in order to keep him safe. Appearance William has brown hair that turned black when he got oulder. Personality As a teenager, William was rather secluded, especially after his mothers death. Sexuality William was revealed to either be gay or bisexual when he tells Roy Harper about his ex-boyfriend questioning why he has commitment issues. In a later episode, when wondering why William is looking for Felicity, Mia asks if the two used to date. William says no in disgust, saying that he's gay, and that Felicity's his step-mom. Reaction Responses from fans were mixed. Some saying the decision to make William gay was good, while other's felt the decision was a bad one. Fans who thought this was good, wanted to see more LGBT representation in the superhero shows, while those who didn't like it were for a variety of reasons. Some LGBT fans have had a problem with Arrow's portrayal of LGB characters, and didn't think that the writers would handle William being gay well. Since being revealed that he's gay, they've had no other exploration with this aspect of his character, which many take as proof of these predictions. Other fans felt that him being gay was too forced, given that it's revealed with a random line, and didn't add anything else. Other fans were quick to point out that if he mentioned an ex-girlfriend, no one would be complaining about forced heterosexuality. While William himself doesn't exist in the comics, Oliver Queen did have two son's before the New 52. Connor Hawke and Robert Queen. Robert rarely ever appeared, and stayed a baby most of the time. Connor was more prominent, and eventually became the Green Arrow. While the Connor Hawk name was given as an alias to John Diggle Jr., while still using the same story elements for William. Some fans see William being gay as more of deviation from the Connor Hawke character than he already was, despite Connor not having any significant love interests in the comics. More vitriolic fans believed that there were too many gay characters already, and the change was too push a "homosexual agenda". Relationships Unnamed William mentions his ex-boyfriend to Roy. Keven Dale In the original timeline, William flirted with Keven to distract him while Mia got some of his DNA. Tropes * * *Queer Character, Queer Actor - Ben Lewis, who plays older William, identifies as Gay, and is married to actor Blake Lee. * See Also : Navigation